BBFI Mission Director, Jon Konnerup, recently traveled to Midway Church near Dallas to present a 30-year award to missionaries Mitch and Beth Calmes (Kenya). (Pictured above from left to right is Beth and Mitch Calmes, Jon Konnerup, and sending pastor, John Theisen.) If you are a supporting church for the Calmes, we hope you will take this opportunity to congratulate them and thank them for their faithful service. Their email address is Mitch.Calmes@bbfimissions.org.

Mitch and Beth Calmes, missionaries to Tanzania and now Kenya, are celebrating 30 years of service with the BBFI.  After learning Swahili, they worked with a young church plant in Moshi, Tanzania for their first term. While there, they developed their Swahili language skills and developed lasting relationships.  Afterwards, they ministered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for over 22 years where they started two churches, a MANNA Feeding Center and pre-school for orphans and needy children. During that time, they developed numerous church ministries and trained national leaders who continue to lead these ministries. While in Tanzania, Beth also cofounded the SIFA Collective ministry in 2013; it is a discipleship and vocational training center for marginalized young women. During the same year, Mitch cofounded Bible Training Center for Pastors to educate Tanzanian pastors who had no Biblical training.  These two training schools continue to be successful, and Mitch and Beth return a few times a year to encourage, advise, and train.

The year 2020 was a time of transition.  That year, the Tanzanian government would not renew their work permits. However, God immediately opened new doors for them further north along the Swahili Coast near Mombasa, Kenya where Mitch became the director for the Bible Training Center for Pastors. He also trains, mentors and assists an expanding group of village pastors in coastal and southern Kenya to start churches while continuing to provide them with an advanced pastoral education. Beth is using her Tanzanian experience with women’s ministry, Bible teaching, and Swahili language skills to cofound a new disciple training program and biblical resource center for Swahili-speaking women and women’s ministry leaders in Kenya. Besides offering on-site training and physical resources, this exciting new ministry has built a digital platform called KUJUA Ministries that creates and provides Swahili biblical content through a phone app, podcast and YouTube channel to Swahili-speaking women all over the world.  Please pray with Mitch and Beth that God would use them to help start churches and provide sound biblical and theological training to East African church leaders that will strengthen local churches for the glory of God.